Moving on this year...
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 1:02 pm
So, the game seems to have managed survive (woohoo) and I'm sure we've gotten passed the always scary December hump with holidays with hopefully everyone still with a hand in, so also woohoo.
Anyway, a few concerns of mine that you lot can weight in on as we go onwards (now we have a proper forum, I can keep thse out of the OOC).
1) DM versus D&D.
Obviously, there's a battle between using the system of d20 D&D as a ready made system to run a game in the DM world. Too much houseruling and I'm breaking the system, too little and you aren't really playing a DM game. Sadly, we seemed to have missed some of the DM-like monsters and puzzles.
Obviously, I don't want this to just be a 'sing-a-long-a-DM' and just keep going 'hey, look, purple worms, remember those, they were cool' etc, so I've always planned to have the original monsters with subtle fun twists and then flesh them out with new monsters (some D&D, others new). Similarly, introducing some new elements to compliment what we know of the DM plots.
I'd like to know if these are balancing well for people.
2) Pacing and playstyle.
Obviously pacing is a tough one in play by post. I think we are doing ok, obviously it's a shame the two or three times I let the party 'rest' there were some story triggers, and of course we've had people on reduced posting ability. Personally, I prefer that the dungeon keeps moving, and at the moment the party's actions keep triggering responses. So I'd like to keep a boot on their necks a little in terms of being chased or being pulled. Also, levelling up is something I don't want to do too little nor too much. The original 'one level per encounter' might start giving way to a slowly increasing spread, just as DM would ahve done it.
Playstyle is the odd one. I'm GMing without really railroading you guys (I hope). The dungeon is set in my mind, but I'm not devoting huge time to fleshing that out until you guys get close to an area. Hence I really will roll with what you want to do. Are you happy with this level of freedom, or would you prefer some story rails so you have something to set your backs against? At the moment I might indicate fruitful avenues for your characters, but even then they might be mutually exclusive with others sometimes I'm just conscious that with a great degree of freedom, it can lead to a paralysis of choice or worse yet an inability to really spot the main plot choices.
3) The d20 3.5 system. Obviously I have made some tweaks in line with 4th edition and some 3.5 spin-offs to smooth over some problems. And of course made some other small alteratiosn to try and bridge the gap between DM and D&D. How are people finding the system itself? Is it too restrictive in some ways? Are you happy with how it resolves things?
A few concerns are in the area of skills and the area of equipment restrictions. The former is a weakness of the 3.5 system, skills are a really great idea that builds upon the previous editions. However, in practice you start getting some unwieldy bonuses later on, and more importantly the skill point distribution for class and intelligence can be a little punishing. A '3.75' system released by Paizo to continue the system had a few small tweaks to shore this up that I might try to sneak in if people really feel the skills system is a little unfair on them (I'm thinking about Haynuus and Falkor more than others).
Equipment wise, obviously D&D puts restricions on the items people can use effectively, whereas DM did not in the same way. Obviously characters could wear any armour without penalty in DM. And in DM, you could at least use any weapon without penalties, although of course the useful options were only available to the right class.
Are people happy enough to stick withthe D&D equipment restrictions? Armour check penalties are applied to skills and hits if you aren'r proficient, and weapons take hit penalties if you aren't proficient with them.
Anyway, that's all, just to let you know what I'm trying to do in the background, so that you can comment on things if anything feels 'off' to you as players.
If you have any other comments, concerns or critisisms, feel free to post them here
Anyway, a few concerns of mine that you lot can weight in on as we go onwards (now we have a proper forum, I can keep thse out of the OOC).
1) DM versus D&D.
Obviously, there's a battle between using the system of d20 D&D as a ready made system to run a game in the DM world. Too much houseruling and I'm breaking the system, too little and you aren't really playing a DM game. Sadly, we seemed to have missed some of the DM-like monsters and puzzles.
Obviously, I don't want this to just be a 'sing-a-long-a-DM' and just keep going 'hey, look, purple worms, remember those, they were cool' etc, so I've always planned to have the original monsters with subtle fun twists and then flesh them out with new monsters (some D&D, others new). Similarly, introducing some new elements to compliment what we know of the DM plots.
I'd like to know if these are balancing well for people.
2) Pacing and playstyle.
Obviously pacing is a tough one in play by post. I think we are doing ok, obviously it's a shame the two or three times I let the party 'rest' there were some story triggers, and of course we've had people on reduced posting ability. Personally, I prefer that the dungeon keeps moving, and at the moment the party's actions keep triggering responses. So I'd like to keep a boot on their necks a little in terms of being chased or being pulled. Also, levelling up is something I don't want to do too little nor too much. The original 'one level per encounter' might start giving way to a slowly increasing spread, just as DM would ahve done it.
Playstyle is the odd one. I'm GMing without really railroading you guys (I hope). The dungeon is set in my mind, but I'm not devoting huge time to fleshing that out until you guys get close to an area. Hence I really will roll with what you want to do. Are you happy with this level of freedom, or would you prefer some story rails so you have something to set your backs against? At the moment I might indicate fruitful avenues for your characters, but even then they might be mutually exclusive with others sometimes I'm just conscious that with a great degree of freedom, it can lead to a paralysis of choice or worse yet an inability to really spot the main plot choices.
3) The d20 3.5 system. Obviously I have made some tweaks in line with 4th edition and some 3.5 spin-offs to smooth over some problems. And of course made some other small alteratiosn to try and bridge the gap between DM and D&D. How are people finding the system itself? Is it too restrictive in some ways? Are you happy with how it resolves things?
A few concerns are in the area of skills and the area of equipment restrictions. The former is a weakness of the 3.5 system, skills are a really great idea that builds upon the previous editions. However, in practice you start getting some unwieldy bonuses later on, and more importantly the skill point distribution for class and intelligence can be a little punishing. A '3.75' system released by Paizo to continue the system had a few small tweaks to shore this up that I might try to sneak in if people really feel the skills system is a little unfair on them (I'm thinking about Haynuus and Falkor more than others).
Equipment wise, obviously D&D puts restricions on the items people can use effectively, whereas DM did not in the same way. Obviously characters could wear any armour without penalty in DM. And in DM, you could at least use any weapon without penalties, although of course the useful options were only available to the right class.
Are people happy enough to stick withthe D&D equipment restrictions? Armour check penalties are applied to skills and hits if you aren'r proficient, and weapons take hit penalties if you aren't proficient with them.
Anyway, that's all, just to let you know what I'm trying to do in the background, so that you can comment on things if anything feels 'off' to you as players.
If you have any other comments, concerns or critisisms, feel free to post them here